Thursday, January 27, 2022

World Building- A Helpful Guide - Part 2

 World Building

A Helpful Guide

Part 2


The other half of writing your novel and building the world within is its people. We're all influenced by both history and pop culture. We look at the ancient Egyptians, seeing a grand people of many gods and interesting practices. With pop culture we see the lightsaber wielding jedi or a powerful wizard like Gandalf, thinking I want my characters like that. This is all possible within the story your writing. I wrote a manuscript where the people of a culture represented the rage of humanity. Humanities negative side mixed with a strict set of religious practices to be specific.

Your range of what the people are like within your novel is infinite and settling on specifics can be tricky. Look to what interests you or what you've been raised on for resources. Say your Japanese and love the culture of your heritage. You can use that along with say an interest in steampunk. This can make for an interesting combination.

I want to clarify I'm coming from the standpoint of a fantasy writer. You may write horror, romance or westerns in which case your influences for writing will be far different than mine.

To continue, creating the characters around your protagonist the use of the five senses is need. What do people smell like? Is the sent of your main character's spouse something he or she draws memories from? Comfort perhaps? Is the typical day noisy? Does your main character live in the desert, waking up to a dry taste on their tongue? All these questions can be answered with what you want the people, as well as the protagonist, to deal with in their day to day.

Beyond culture and the fives sense there is possibly the most important part of creating the people around your protagonist. Morality. This is where you can experiment on how right and wrong works. Humans tend to also walk the line on these two and the definitions can be subjective. Say your protagonist is a thief. Did he or she grow up not getting what they want thus forcing them into thievery? The people this character grew up around could be similar or completely different in upbringing.

A lot of this might not sound concrete, but world building really isn't until you start forming solid idea of what you want for story in your mind. That is why novels take time to be written. I ask that you don't put yourself on a deadline until earning the attention of a literary agent, editor, or small press.

This concludes both parts of World Building, A Helpful Guide. I hope both part one and two give you an idea of where to start. If you want to discuss world building with me check out Twitter. I'm under @hwjohnston7.

 

Friday, January 7, 2022

World Building - A Helpful Guide - Part 1

 World Building

A

Helpful

Guide

Part 1


Your world building is just as important as the story itself when writing fiction. You help the reader understand who the protagonist is by building a solid world. The world is often called the setting too. This blog post is part one, discussing what to do in world building.

To begin your story you want the basics of your protagonists life. What sounds are there? Do the doors open automatically or is he in the past where everything is manual? What smells does the protagonist deal with? Is he religious in some capacity? Go for the basics before diving into what is called the inciting incident. This is where new things are experienced. From where the protagonist is to what he feels as his world is turned upside down. Once within the inciting incident, in full force, bombarded the reader with what the protagonist is feeling, seeing and doing. Everything will be different as far as emotions, buildings, the fives senses, and so on.

As you continue to develop the characters, story and world, create new scenarios that require changes in setting. For example, your protagonist is in a palace and ends up soring through the skies atop an eagle. You'll show what the palace is like and then the conditions of being on the eagle. Remember to use the five senses and show what the protagonist sees. And if the scene calls for it throw in a memory or exposition.

There is one thing I want to stress most in world building. You need to include an element of the genre you are writing in from page one of the story. Its not science fiction if there is nothing high tech or unearthly in the story. There needs to be something in general that sets your story apart from other genres so the reader knows what they are reading. If I'm reading historical fiction set in the 40s, then radios, newspapers speaking of WW2 and maybe even a slightly worn first appearance of Batman can be shown. This all depends on whether your a civilian in America, a soldier in the war or in a POW camp. The point is not to leave the reader confused as to what exactly they are reading. 

To close out part one of World Building - A Helpful Guide, I want to add that it's important to do your research when creating a fictional world. Whether everything is made up or set the real world you want things to be clear and to know what your talking about.